


As Though There Were No Tomorrow

by Shuggins



Series: Heartaches By The Numbers [1]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/F, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, In-between s2 & s3, Nightmares, and hugs, elmax - Freeform, like hand holding, mention of PTSD, some freaky shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-09
Updated: 2019-06-09
Packaged: 2020-04-23 11:29:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19150120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shuggins/pseuds/Shuggins
Summary: In that moment as Max listened to the sound of El’s breathing and the chirps of crickets in the muggy summer night heat, she wished that she could stop time and stay in this perfect moment just a little bit longer.rated T for language





	As Though There Were No Tomorrow

**Author's Note:**

> title is a reference to "Love Me As Though There Were No Tomorrow" By Nat King Cole  
> 

Everyone has those memories of something they’ve done in the past that just makes them cringe out of contempt for the person they used to be. For Eleven that memory was when she first met Max Mayfield, she was cold and barely acknowledged her existence, pretending Max wasn’t even there for the most part. Because she had already signed Max off as a girl that was trying to replace her in the party during El’s absence. She also viewed her as competition for Mike’s affection, which couldn’t be further from the truth.

Another memory that would make El cringe in embarrassment was when she made these thoughts known to Mike one day, a couple weeks after El had closed the gate to the upside down. El tried to explain that the reason she didn’t like Max was because she saw her “flirting” with Mike back when El snuck into Hawkins Middle. Where she then yanked the skateboard out from under Max in a childish fit of jealousy.

Mike tried to keep a straight face, his lips curling into a twitching smirk that was very clearly trying to contain laughter. Eventually he couldn’t handle it and he ended up bursting into a fit of hysteric giggling while El’s face turned from pink to tomato red.

After Mike managed to compose himself enough to form complete sentences, he explained that at first, he didn’t really like Max at all either, but for the same petty reason El had. That she was a “threat” that was somehow going to replace El in the group just because she happened to be a girl. And how that interaction between him and Max in the gym was mostly Max pestering Mike and confronting him about his shitty behavior.

Mike seemed to turn red a bit too thinking back at how immature and honestly a bit sexist he was about it. Max clearly was going through some shit already and the last thing she needed was this snobbish nerd trying to push her out when she was just trying to make friends. At the end of it all Mike basically just asked El to cool it and give Max a chance.

After that talk things between El and Max thawed little by little. El realized that the only reason they weren’t friends was because El had put a wall between them before they even really knew each other, and Max seemed more than fine with letting El keep that wall up, due to the fact that Max was more than a little intimidated by the psychic girl, although she’d never admit it. But now they would actually talk to each other when Hopper begrudgingly allowed the party to come over to visit El in the cabin, and they even started hanging out without the rest of the party once El managed to beg Hopper enough to let her out of the cabin now that they were only 3 months out from the beginning of the ‘85 school year.

Usually Max and El would hang out by the quarry and talk about one of the few things they had in common. Their boyfriends, mostly them trading stories and giving the other relationship advice. These conversations over their shared statuses seemed to quickly thaw what little tension was still between them, and they became close.  
El wouldn’t say she was closer to Max than she was anyone else in the party, especially not Mike, but things just...felt different between them, a certain comfort and ease that she never felt when she was alone with Mike. El couldn’t really figure out why she felt this way towards Max of all people, but she didn’t really pay it much mind. A lot of things confused El and for now she was content to throw these feelings into the large pile of things that she didn’t wholly understand about life outside the lab.

That was how they ended up here, with Max staying the night at the cabin. Hopper made it clear that Max was the only one of El’s friends allowed to have sleepovers, for obvious reasons. These became semi-frequent and Hopper would always let Max stay the night if El asked. Hopper was well aware of Max’s living situation after Steve filled him in on the incident with Billy that happened during the night when El closed the gate. So, Hopper thought it was the least he could do to get Max out of that house, if only for a night. But Hopper had to stay late at work that evening, so it would just be Max and El alone in the cabin for the night.

Max woke up in a pool of sweat, the heavy blanket that El had gave her ended up becoming stifling in the summer night heat. She threw it off with a huff and gave a sigh of relief at the welcome change in temperature. From her spot on the floor to the left of Eleven’s bed Max could hear the crickets chirping away outside, the cracked window did little to ease the heat but the sounds from outside were good at keeping the silence at bay. Max wasn’t used to being in such a quiet house, at her own home when Max’s step-dad was there the tv in the living room was almost always blaring at max volume and when he wasn’t Billy usually would listen to his rock music at an equally high volume, ensuring that there was hardly a moment of silence in the Mayfield household. When Max and El first went to bed the silence almost unnerving. But now Max could feel sleep pulling her back under and she almost let it until a small shaking sound stopped her. Max pulled open her heavy eyelids and looked around the dark room. The shaking sound doubled in volume, Max looked up at the shelf above her and she saw the various items up there were the source of the noise, They were all rattling, Roary the dinosaur fell over while some of the other items were precariously inching closer and closer to the edge of the shelf.

Max bolted up, in her sleep addled state her first thought was that there was an earthquake. Until she heard El groan in her sleep, Max looked towards the girl, and it only took her a couple seconds to realize the true source of the tremors. Eleven was curled in on herself, shivering despite the summer heat with her face pulled in a tight grimace. Max scrambled onto the bed, that had also begun to tremor. she tried to shake the girl awake as gently as she could.

“El, hey wake up…come on you’re having a nightmare wake u- “

Max never finished her sentence, an overwhelming force pushed her away from Eleven and sent her tumbling off the side of the bed. she landed on her back with a loud thump and a pained shout. The shaking stopped immediately, and the room grew silent again until El woke up with a gasp, she sat upright in her bed, breathing heavily. After a moment she cautiously peered over the side of the bed to see the source of the noise that woke her up, only to find Max staring back up at her in shock, wheezing and trying to regain the breath that had been knocked out of her.

It didn’t take El long to connect the dots as she saw a drop of blood fall from her nose and land next to Max’s head

“Max!” Eleven jumped off the bed and kneeled next Max on the floor and tried to ignore the flinch Max gave as El got closer “I’m sorry! Max are you okay!?” Her hands were floating above Max, wanting to do something but not sure how to help. El was starting to grow frantic, what if she hurt Max bad, like seriously bad? what were they going to do? Hopper wasn’t home and it’s not like El could call an ambulance.

The redhead was still wheezing but she held up a hand at El as she tried to regain her breath.

“I-I’m okay just give me…give me a moment.” Max closed her eyes as she focused on breathing, she had never been on the receiving end of El’s powers before, besides the incident with the skateboard…But that was nothing compared to what just happened to her now. God, if that was the kind of power El had when she was unconscious Max wondered what it would have been like to be at the receiving end of the girl’s full power. her blood ran cold as she remembered the sickening sounds of El crushing the Demodogs against the side of the Byers home back on that November night.

Max opened her eyes to see El still staring down at her, the psychic’s eyes were brimming with tears as the blood dried on her upper lip.

“I’m okay, you just…scared the shit out of me.” Max laughed breathily. The comment was meant to ease her but judging by how El’s face contorted into a look of pain that rivaled Max’s own she seemed to have only upset her more.

“Hey hey, it’s fine really, I know you didn’t mean to. It’s just an accident.” Max gingerly sat up and faced the other girl. EL immediately pulled Max into a tight hug, the tears she was barely holding back came flooding out as she buried her face into the redhead’s shoulder and sobbed.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

El clutched Max tightly as she sobbed into her shoulder. Max stiffened a bit; she wasn’t used to this emotional…stuff. She looked towards the door as she debated on getting Mike on the walkie talkie to help calm El down, he’d know what to do. But as El’s tears soaked her shoulder Max gave up on that possibility and thought back to what her Mom used to do when she was upset. Max brought her hand up to El’s back and rubbed circles into it with her palm.

Max doesn’t know how much time passed as they sat there, she went into a bit of a trance as she just focused on rubbing soft circles into El’s back, she came back to herself when she realized that El’s sobs turned into light sniffles and soon that deafening silence washed back over the room. They finally pull apart, even in the darkness Max could see the other girl’s eyes were bloodshot, she looked exhausted.

 

“Let’s get back up on the bed, okay?” Max suggested as she slowly got to her feet, El got up quickly so she could help her onto the mattress. Max sat down with a wince as El crawled onto the spot besides her.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” El whispered as she watched Max gingerly move herself into a comfortable position against the back of the headboard.

Max nodded. “I will be, I’ve had wipeouts that hurt way worse than this. Does this happen a lot?” Max asked as she looked up at the other girl, they never talked about stuff like this much, and Max felt that she was pushing a line.

El looked down at her lap, her eyebrows furrowing up in thought, clearly debating just how much she felt comfortable telling Max.

After a moment she nodded stiffly. “sometimes I get bad dreams…about the lab…and the bad men. Hopper said that I might have p-post trum…tram…” El looked back up at Max, a bit exasperated, clearly struggling to remember the words. “They thought Will had it?

“I think it was post-traumatic stress disorder.” Max responded.

El nodded again. “sometimes when I get those dreams this happens.” She looks around the room, some miscellaneous items like pencils, photos and magazines littered the floor, but besides that it seemed Max was the only major causality of Eleven’s episode.

“But I’ve never thrown someone, when I wasn’t awake.” El gave a groan of frustration as she balled her hands into fists.

“I don’t want to hurt people anymore, but I hurt you and I wasn’t even awake, how am I supposed to control it when I’m asleep?’’

El gripped the bedsheet tightly, deep in thought, she was beyond frustrated. If Hopper found out about this, he might not let Max sleep over anymore. He might not even let El go to school in the Fall. Her swirling thoughts were interrupted by a warm hand gripping hers.

“Accidents happen, I wouldn’t worry. People do a lot of weird stuff when they’re asleep, like talk…and piss the bed.” Max said.

They both giggled at that, El appreciated that Max wasn’t mad at her, she had every right to be. As the giggling dies down El looks down at Max’s hand on hers. Again, she felt that strange feeling in her chest, the comfort from it was welcome but she still didn’t know why, Mike does the same thing when they are holding hands but with Max it’s just…different. She is once again pulled from her thoughts when Max pulls her hand away with an awkward cough. El realized that she might have been staring for too long, her ears turned red and she was thankful that her hair was now long enough to cover them.

“You should talk to Will…about the post traumatic thing, he might know how to help.” Max said, in an attempt to fill the silence, El was staring at the bedsheet as if it were suddenly the most interesting thing in the world, but she nodded at Max’s suggestion. Feeling as if that were a cue that she had finally pushed the line a bit too far Max swung her legs over the side of the bed as she started to slowly move off it to reclaim her spot on the floor, keeping mind of her aching back. But she was stopped by El’s hand gripping her arm.

“Sleep up here, please? Y-Your back...” She stammered. El hoped that Max didn’t see past her thinly veiled excuse, in truth her vivid nightmare was still fresh in her mind and she didn’t feel comfortable being so far from another person right now. Max gave a warm smile as she settled back onto the bed. El pulled the sheet over the both of them as she tried to accommodate Max the best she could, the bed was small, so they still ended up with their arms and legs brushing against one another’s, but neither minded. As they settled the two girls realized how exhausted they were as they felt sleep almost immediately begin pulling them both back under it’s spell.

In that moment as Max listened to the sound of El’s breathing and the chirps of crickets in the muggy summer night heat, she wished that she could stop time and stay in this perfect moment just a little bit longer. Because in the morning when she looked down at El’s still sleeping form she’d come to the exhilarating and terrifying realization that she had an intense crush on Eleven.

But that was morning Max’s problem, and right now she wouldn’t worry about that as she slowly succumbed to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a comment or a kudos if you liked it, or if you have any tips on how I can improve my writing.


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